Your connection to the council advancement records and more

Good news for unit leaders who have been using Internet Advancement to
track their Scouts’ progress along the Scouting trail. The BSA has
recently introduced a new upgraded version of Internet Advancement. The
improvements make inputting advancement updates faster, allow leaders
to search advancement history easily and give Scouters more control
over printable reports including those that are used to make purchases
at the Scout Shop.

Knowing that opportunities to manage unit advancement may happen when
access to a desktop or laptop is not convenient, the BSA has optimized
Internet Advancement for all devices: desktop, tablet or smartphone.
These enhancements to Internet Advancement are only the beginning. More
improvements are on their way later in 2019.

The previous version of Internet Advancement will be retired for all
programs except Exploring on June 10, 2019. Non-Exploring units — that
means Cub Scout packs, Scouts BSA troops, Venturing crews and Sea Scout
ships — will have until June 10, 2019 to download any advancement forms
they need from the previous version of Internet Advancement.

Who uses Internet Advancement?

Unit Key 3 users, unit Key 3 delegate users and unit advancement chairs
can access Internet Advancement. Internet Advancement is primarily used
by unit leaders who have decided they aren’t yet ready to switch over
to Scoutbook. Unlike before, advancement approvals are immediately
stored in the BSA database with the new version. There is no longer a
“Submit to Council” step after users have approved all desired items.
If you’re already using Scoutbook, you can stop reading now. You
already have these new features. (Now that Scoutbook is free, most
units — including all new units — will want to use Scoutbook to manage
and track their Scouts’ advancement.)

What’s different about Internet Advancement now?

New features include:

The ability for unit leaders to quickly select multiple youth before recording one or more advancements, speeding up data entry.
A notification for unit leaders when youth have completed advancements. All pending items can be approved at once.
The ability for unit leaders to quickly search the full advancement
history for all youth in their unit using the activity tab. Search
criteria may include youth name, rank, advancement type or advancement
status.

A choice of three reports — all of which can be run for one or more
selected youth in the roster or for everyone in the roster if no one is
selected. These reports are: Advancement History, Unit Roster and the
Advancement Report, which is used to make purchases at the local Scout
Shop.

A Private Unit Forum, where unit leaders can hold private discussions
within their unit. Go to discussions.scouting.org to give it a try.
A unit roster that’s fully searchable by youth name, member ID or rank.
The ability for unit leaders with multiple units to quickly switch
between units by clicking on their unit icon in the upper right corner.
The ability for unit leaders with multiple units to save a default unit
in their settings page so their device remembers which unit to load by
default.

Instant feedback if the unit leader attempts to record a rank out of order or after the youth has aged out of a program.
The ability to provide a partially completed Eagle application for
youth who have completed the Life rank. Unit leaders can find this by
attempting to record the Eagle Rank for a youth.

How can someone access Internet Advancement?

Internet Advancement can be accessed via one of the following locations using my.Scouting credentials:

The report Unit Leaders will use to purchase items at the Scout Shop is
called the “Advancement Report” and can be run from the reports menu
just above the roster. The report will include all items that have been
approved since the report was last run. The “Advancement Report” looks
a little different from the report in the previous version. But don’t
worry. The BSA has informed Scout Shops about the new format, so
they’ll recognize it right away.